This invention relates to apparatus for safe operation of jumper cables, and more particularly to a jumper cable assembly that provides an elongate electroluminescent element alongside the cable.
Jumper cables are employed to start a motor when the vehicle battery is too weak by connecting a more powerful battery in parallel with the weak battery. This may take place in the dark. Moving around in the dark between two vehicles to connect the two batteries, and to then enter the vehicle to start the motor while the cables are in place can be dangerous. If one trips over the cable, the connections may pull loose and cause sparking, bums, and fires.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,576 issued Sep. 26, 2000 to James discloses safety jumper cables that ensure correct connections, but do not address the problem of tripping over the cables in the dark.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,013 issued Jul. 18, 1995 to the applicant discloses an elongate electroluminescent strip connected to an electric power source for application to an automobile to provide an illuminated trim.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,288 issued Jan. 29, 1999 to Feldman discloses an elongate, flexible cable connected to the audio output of an audio amplifier. It is illuminated along its length by an electroluminescent element that glows in time to the music.
None of the prior art teach luminescent jumper cables.
It would be useful to have a set of jumper cables that would be luminous along their length so that people would be less likely to trip over them in the dark
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a jumper cable assembly that has the usual connections at both ends for connecting two batteries in parallel. It is another object that the assembly emit light along its length when it is connected to at least one of the batteries. The jumper cables of the invention include a power supply that is connected to the positive and negative wires, so that it will be powered when either battery is connected. A flexible, elongate, electroluminescent element is connected to the power supply output and disposed alongside the positive and negative wires to thereby illuminate the cable assembly along its length.
The jumper cable assembly may optionally include a talking feature to ensure correct polarity of connection. When the negative and positive connections are reversed at a battery, a sensor may detect the error and the reversed connections may power an audible signal such as xe2x80x9cwrong connectionxe2x80x9d.